Greatest Hits albums that don't have the actual hit versions on them?

They did remix The Letter in stereo on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen Deluxe Edition though Steve.

Actually there are at least 3 released versions:
Help Me Ronda - Today
Help Me Rhonda - Single & Summer Days (And Summer Nights)
Help Me Rhonda - wa wa version, Endless Harmony Soundtrack, This version actually sounds more like Ronda than Rhonda and it's my favorite.

Nearly all Carpenters greatest hits comps since 1985 use the Richard Carpenter remixes instead of the hit single versions. Even the best one - the Netherlands ULTIMATE COLLECTION from last year, which used original album mixes - managed to botch the "Yesterday Once More" track by pulling it from the album master, where you get to hear the revving of engines that started the oldies medley on the NOW AND THEN album.

Harry

That was a big original blunder on Capitol's part. The single with The Honeys on cheerleader chants is infinitely better.

Jan & Dean - Golden Hits Collection (Masters 61013 W. Germany) uses almost none of the actual hit versions. The mastering seems great though and I really enjoy the alternate versions.

John denver......he rerecorded I think EVERY song on his first greatest hits album...most were better in some ways but NOT the originals, so if you hear the originals afterwards..you are like.....WHAT????

Rolling Stones - "High Tide & Green Grass" used a new version of "Time Is On My Side".

I always resisted the urge to buy that album, and didn't find out until finding this forum that it had live versions on it, so I feel even more justified in never buying it, or even listening to it. There must have been a reason for doing that, as putting live versions on "greatest hits" albums was not exactly a standard practice. Somebody must know.

In fact, 'wrong' versions of hits go way, way back...at least to ELVIS' GOLD RECORDS VOL. 2 and that alternate take of "Doncha Think It's Time." Thing is, if you had a clean 45 version, an alternate, in '59, was kinda unique, though not sure if anyone made a big deal of it back then.

I'm pretty sure we've had this sort of thread before; and there are simply too many examples to even begin to list. The old albums are fun, though, because they usually were mistakes, not intentionally or willfully done, as would happen once the '70s kicked in and reissues became more common.

A very early pressing of Art Laboe's Original Sound Lp, OLDIES BUT GOODIES, had an alternate of--I think--"Dance With Me Henry" or some other track. I know one of those early OBG Lp's had one(corrected for all later pressings), because it had the original cover graphics and stock, and a black OS label with silver lettering.

Of course alternates slipped on on mono and stereo pressings. The former would have the mono single mixes, the stereo Lp's mixes often way different from those singles, or--like "El Paso" or "Big Bad John" or even "Oh Pretty Woman"--some lyric alteration or edit. But I'm not sure these count, since not only did these anomalies first appear on non-comps, but even the comp's mono edition would still have the 'hit' version.

not all of them, just a bit less than half... although there is a different "greatest hits" release that is all re-recordings. John recorded these shortly before his death.

I know the Liberty Records Golden Hits version of Jennie Lee by Jan and Dean is a re-record-I wonder if the CD that dumangl refers to is the CD version of that LP? I recall hearing first the sedate version (with no echo) of the Golden Hits version on a Liberty re-issue 45, then on my 10th birthday, getting the Anthology Album, putting on the song, and expecting the same thing, but it was the Arwin Records version....wow! I ran over to the record player, actually, amazed by the sound of the song, with all the echo and everything.

The DCC of "Spirit of America" uses a different mix and edit of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".

Sorry, Steve....couldn't resist.

The Pet Shop Boys "PopArt" greatest hits double cd (UK version-2003) has three songs which obviously differ from the hit versions:

Heart - Uses album version

I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing - Uses incorrect remixed version

Flamboyant - Hit version was released after PopArt came out (I guess this one could be excused)

Incidentally, when the US version came out almost 3 years later the correct hit versions were used (including the single version of Flamboyant). Of course, none of these songs were hits in the US anyway.

I find nothing wrong with the stereo album version of "Be True To Your School". It's missing the chants, but I never saw that as any great loss. At the risk of disagreeing with everybody (apparently), those chants sound dated and cornball to me. In defense of Capitol, you can't really call that a blunder on their part. In 1974 when Endless Summer came out, mono singles from the 1960's were pretty much a thing of the distant past, and record companies were not going to put a mono single version on an otherwise all stereo (or fake stereo) album. That simply was not done. And when CD's first came out, record companies would just use the original LP master, why wouldn't they? It wasn't until several years into the CD era that going back and using original mono single versions became all the rage. The only real blunder on the original Endless Summer LP was using "Help Me, Ronda" (from 'Today!") instead of "Help Me, Rhonda" (the re-recorded hit version).

"The Association's Greatest Hits" featured a re-recorded version of "Enter The Young". It had an updated, more "hip" sound to it, but I like both versions.

"The Rascals' Greatest Hits-Time Peace" featured stereo versions of several songs that differed radically from the original single versions, but I don't think that bothered a lot of people as that was a huge seller, one of the best comps of the late 1960's.

When Frank Sinatra left Capitol records to form his own label (Reprise), he re-recorded a number of his mono-only Capitol hits in stereo for the album "Sinatra's Sinatra". It actually said "Newly Recorded-First Time In Stereo" on the LP cover, so he wasn't trying to fool anybody.

It bugs me that the original 45 r.p.m. version of Stealers Wheel's "Everything Will Turn Out Fine" remains unavailable anywhere on CD, not just the hits compilations. The single was a completely different recording, with a more folky feel; kind of like an early Traffic tune. The re-recorded version (that appears on Ferguslie Park and the compilations) is more uptown, with session players and slicker. It's a great song either way, but I'd give much for a CD of the original single release.

Gordon' Lightfoot's Gord's Gold Volume II included re-recordings of Race Among The Ruins and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald (I think there may have been others). There was absolutely no need to do this IMO as the release wason the same label and the originals sound just fine.

Gord's Gold Volume One does the same of course because of label restrictions.

Over 90% of Gord's Gold Volume II is re-recorded (only 4 original recordings)

That's true, but according to Goldmine there was a mono version of this LP.

I agree with you on "Be True To Your School." Neither version is among my all-time favorite Beach Boys tracks. I don't really find it a problem that those Honeys bits seem dated, but it does seem to turn the record into a bit of a novelty thing. I prefer to just hear the Beach Boys sing the ascending harmony bit. I actually think this was one of a small handfull of songs that the BB's actually bettered with their circa 1980 live arrangement (not so much the 90's arrangement).

I'm not sure of the history of exactly why the "Endless Summer" LP was programmed the way it was, but it seems likely that it was more along the lines of a clerical error of just pulling one version of a song with more than one available version.

Gordie must have been "into the sauce" when he decided to do it.

His excuse claimed to be he wanted to have a "live in the studio" feel.